In the Montecito Journal's Real Estate View, published the week of February 21, author Michael Phillips makes sense out of the Heat Index for Montecito. The article explains that the heat index measures present demand for single-family homes in multiple price sectors and scores are compared to those from a year ago. Astonishingly, today's heat score is 378, which reflects a 302% increase over last year's. While the under $1 million range saw an enormous gain with a score of 250, the luxury markets of $2-3 million and $3-4 million saw encouraging gains with scores of 25 and 26 respectively. Rising prices was also a topic of interest in the article, stating that despite a demand-supply imbalance, resulting in a thin market, prices are rising and buyers are acting quickly on exciting opportunities. December marked the 10th consecutive nationwide monthly home price increase at 9%. However, Montecito real estate price increase far exceeded that number, with home prices rising 25%! As we enter into the Spring and Summer seasons, Riskin Associates hopes to continue to see gains across all price ranges.